Last week was Golden Week here in Japan; a week where many people get time off of work and school to enjoy a number of holidays. Unfortunately what this meant for us was - nothing. Well actually that's not entirely true - Amy and I did manage to get two days off together instead of just one, so we decided to head off to Hiroshima for a couple of days to get a wider perspective on Japan.
I can't say it was the most "uplifting" of vacations I've ever taken, but it was definitely a memorable experience. One of the places we visited was Peace Memorial Park. In memory of those who died after the "Little Boy" was dropped there in WWII. The park is centered around the Atomic Bomb Dome - one of few buildings that survived the blast - at least enough of it did to be recognizable. Despite is past tragedies Hiroshima has moved on and rebuilt and is now bustling full of tourists as many other Japanese cities are.
Actually, I was surprised at the amount of tourists/foreigners that there were in Hiroshima. I'd gotten so used to being an extreme minority here in Oita that the site of other gaijin really threw me for a loop. It was weird being able to eavesdrop on conversations and actually understand what people were saying! But I was torn - part of me was happy to not be constantly stared at by the locals, but the other part of me was jealous that they weren't. ...If that makes any sense.
On the second day of our trip we left Hiroshima for the nearby island of Itsukushima. More commonly referred to as "Miyajima" (meaning Shrine Island), Itsukushima is designated as one of "Japan's 3 Top Views" and home to the famous Itsukushima Shrine which was built out over the water about 500 years ago. During high tide it looks like the shrine and its torii (gate) are floating - unfortunately Amy and I got there when the tide was out and everything was just covered in mud. Nonetheless it was still pretty amazing. The landscape itself reminded me a lot of British Columbia (as I'm finding many Japanese cities do - Oita really reminds me of Vancouver actually). Miyajima is also home to hundreds of tame/wild deer. They're considered to be "divine messengers" of Itsukushima Shrine, but there's nothing all that divine about them. They're really quite annoying (in a cute, Bambi sort of way). All they do is follow people around and try to steal they're food. In that sense, they're more doglike than deerlike really.
Back at work and finally back to normal working hours - this past week went by fairly quickly (unlike this entry). Today on our day off we went to Kitahama Termasu in Beppu which is the only hotspring around where you're actually allowed to wear a bathing suit and then went and saw the movie "Babel." Despite not having the luxury of (English) subtitles, and not really understanding 3/4 of the dialogue I thought it was a really good movie! Considering it's all about miscommunication and language barriers I thought it was actually pretty fitting not being able to actually know what everyone was saying. I could pick up on some of the Spanish alright, but the Japanese and Arabic (I think it was Arabic - they were in Morocco...?) were totally lost on me. It was a really good story and I don't think I missed out on a whole lot of what happened. ...That being said, I think I'm still going to have to download it and watch it with English subtitles later, just because I'm the type that needs to know if I actually did miss anything important :P
Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I joined the local gym today too. We're starting to run out of TV shows to watch and need something else to occupy our time. It's a pretty decent gym - they have a pool, sauna, jacuzzi, plus an aerobics room, equipment room, and a number of tennis and racquetball courts too. When the temperatures start rising even higher in the summer that pool is going to seem pretty luxurious after work! (Even though we have to wear a shower cap - I won't get into that now though).
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